Kho Gaye Hum Kahan(Netflix)
Starring Adarsh Gourav, Siddhant Chaturvedi,Ananya Panday
Directed by Arjun Varain Singh
Wooooo, wowwww….What a wonderful way to wrap up the year! Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is just the year-ender we needed to dispel the bitter aftertaste of the movieland’s misfires that left us shaken and sadly not stirred.
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is fresh and inviting, like a hot cup of coffee brewed with care and affection. It is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. But the three protagonists are young (please note: they are really young and not just pretending to be), eager to step into the world of the rich and the famous. The girl Ahana (Ananya Pandey) is already there. Her two best friends Neel (Adarsh Gourav) and Imaad (Siddhant Chaturvedi) are getting there. There will be pain, heartache, recrimination and reconciliation before the end. You will be hooked, pinky promise.
The Dil Chahta Hai vibes are unmistakable. The fact that Farhan Akhtar is one of the producers could have a connection with the Dil Chahta Hai hangover… though on second thoughts, director Arjun Varain Singh’s vision is too original for the comparisons with any film about buddy bonding from the past.
What adds a certain spark to the proceedings is the on-the-spot writing. These characters speak the way the young do without sounding like chat forwards. Oh, haven’t I introduced our three protagonists? Imaad is the standup comedian holding a dark corrosive secret in his heart. When it comes tumbling out at the, dare I say, climactic point(it isn’t really structured like a formal film) it is such a crushing moment in the goings-on that it feels more like a rite of passage than a manufactured end-game.
There is a disarming mix of a handsome exterior and a compelling interior here with neither component threatening to out-balance the other.
Adarsh Gaurav, that intense brooding ball of fire from The White Tiger is cast as Neel a social climbing gym instructor who wants to escape his middleclass lifestyle . A teasing subplot about Neel’s run-in with Malaika Arora whets the plot’s pungent palate even more.
Both the actors have done very well in their respective roles. Adarsh has a more complex role than Chaturvedi. They play against each other revealing more than reliving the pain they have endured in the past.
The real surprise of Kho Gayen Hum Kahan is Ananya Pandey. I never thought I would live to see the day when I’d actually like her on screen. Director Arjun Varain Singh taps into her supposed weaknesses (over-privileged , pampered, living in a bubble existence) to give the character its bearings .
The basic core of the three chaddhi buddies irrigates the sleek twists and turns in a film that won’t let its elitist environment vitiate our involvement with lives that are not about changing the world, or even changing themselves. Just being who they are makes the three protagonists likeable. I want to know what happens next to Ahana, Imaad and Neel. Bring on the sequel.
